Bomber’s TvP has been the most talked about TvP build in June. His TvP build was showcased in Red Bull Battlegrounds last month, where he was the runner up of the tournament.

Other than summarising the key aspects of this build, this post also covers some of the overlooked strengths of this build.

Let’s start with Day9’s video coverage of Bomber’s TvP build,

The build is moderation of the typical one barrack no gas fast expand. The key difference with Bomber’s TvP is  that he goes for one refinery instead of two after building three barracks. This does not drastically change the build, but it reallocates the resources. Rather than having two refineries, there will be more mineral with just one refinery. Of course, the trade off is having less gas.

With reference to the fact that a worker will mine an average of 40 mineral per minute, there will be additional of120 mineral for every minute the second refinery is delayed. Typically, the two  refineries go down at around 4:30, Bomber’s build gets the second refinery at around 6:00. This means that there will be around 200 mineral more compared to the typical build.

Advantages in comparison to typical two gas:
– More mineral for an earlier 3rd command center or 2 more barracks
– Know which tech path Protoss is going
– ‘Spare’ mineral to build 2 more bunkers to whole off aggressive Protoss timing 

The first two advantages have been covered by Day[9] in his daily explicitly, while the third advantage has been underrated by many. The first advantage is what is being hyped the most. The second one is covered in Part 2 of Day[9] daily #470, whereby Terran will know which tech path Protoss is going by attacking from the front at around 11:30. However, what I want to mention here is the third advantage. There is enough spare mineral bank up to build two more bunkers at around 6:30. This is usually the time when Protoss builds a proxy pylon somewhere and set up an aggressive push. Everything is under the assumption that Protoss also gets a fast expansion and play a straight up macro game.

General standard PvT timing:
– 7:30 (4 gates)
– 9:15 (7 gates)
– 12:00 (6 gates + colossus)

A standard two gas build after fast expansion will not have that extra mineral to build the extra bunkers without cutting production. In my opinion, one of the key turning points in a standard TvP is whether the Protoss will do a two bases all in, or will he stays passion and gets his upgrades. Even with scan, it is hard to know what the Protoss intends to do, because the Protoss usually spread out the buildings. Bomber always builds a second bunker to prepare for aggression, and he will get a third bunker if necessary. Below is game 1 of the semi final in Red Bull Battlegrounds between Bomber and Squirtle, it shows how useful the bunkers are to hold off the two bases all in from Protoss.

Apart from two bases aggression, Protoss may also get Dark Templar tech. Again, the extra mineral allows Bomber to get turrets without cutting production. This build removes much of the ambiguity of the match up for Terran. First of all, Terran can ‘blindly’ get a more bunkers to prepare for Protoss aggression because there is spare mineral. Second, by attacking with a huge force at the front, it forces Protoss to station his units at the front which will review his tech path. For example, if there are many gateway units, which indicates templar tech path. This means Terran should get a ghost academy. If there are immortal or colossus, get another starport.

Of course, by gaining more mineral, there will be less gas. Hence, the key disadvantage of this build is the delay in upgrade. With that being said, the amount of units Terran produces at that time frame, Protoss cannot afford not to get units to defend. This helps to nullify the relative disadvantage in upgrades.

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Build order:

10 – Supply depot
12 – Barrack (1 marine)
16 – Orbital command
16 – Command centre
17 – Supply depot (constant marine production)
18 – Bunker

Second and third barracks when there is enough mineral, and follow by one refinery. Build a second bunker.

Get a tech lab on the third barrack when it is finished. Then, build a second refinery when tech lab is done. Start stim upgrade when there is 100 gas. Build factory and engineering bay when there is another 100 gas.

Get the third refinery when engineering bay is completed (timing may vary). Start +1 attack upgrade. Build starport when factory completes and gets a reactor on the factory. Swap starport to reactor once it is completed.

Get fourth refinery when starport completes (timing may vary). Drop a tech lab and reactor on the two barracks.

Two choices at 8:30, (1) build 2 barracks, or (2) build a 3rd command centre.

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